Of course, no one expected a miracle. To be honest. It was clear that there was no Dacascos will not save a terminally ill person (if we take the version that he actually filmed this movie in reality :-).
Although Mark Alievich is an experienced action filmmaker, it is clear that he is not very experienced as a feature director (and it is very, very difficult to make a coherent feature). Plus, Dacascos clearly didn't have a good team at hand, since the same "Kickboxer 5" or "The Crying Killer" where Mark was the fight director, had a good cameraman, editor, strong director, good stuntmen and fighting extras who really made his work easier. And in the case of “Manila”, who can we expect enchanting action from? Is he Wilson and Dyuzhev?
And, of course, the influence Nevsky As a producer, it is more than obvious: any film with Nevsky loses at least some sense of taste and acquires total deification and the cult of personality of the “Russian Schwarzenegger”; the universe begins to revolve around Sashka.
The problem with Nevsky as an actor or film producer is not that he is untalented or generally untalented (let’s ignore his “merits” for now). The problem is that Alexander Nevsky absolutely (absolutely) cannot look at himself objectively from the outside and clearly does not have any objective criticism nearby (he is either a director, or he gives money, or all together, but there is no way to criticize him).
This all takes place if we do not consider the option that Alexander is a smart troll (and Nevsky is far from a fool), a troll who competently planned and chose the shortest path to popularity (the shortest, but not the easiest, by the way). He is very well brought up, literate, excellent diction, fluent, he has a very intelligent family, which I believe doted on him, so he grew up as a person from the series - spit in my eyes - I’ll say God’s dew. True, there are a lot of demons, but he doesn’t look his interlocutor in the eye.
But making a film or producing a film, getting it onto the screens is not as easy as it seems. It’s just a pity that he is killing Dacascos’ already dying career outright.
However, let's move on from the introduction to the main part.
The main shortcomings of the film are, in fact, the entire set of shortcomings that can only be: acting, plot, staging, editing, picture, budget\locations.
The plot is nominal, collecting all possible illogicalities, fears, clichés and borrowings from wherever possible. A schematic series of crazy events that leads the main characters into the jungle to Tagawa. What a beauty. If I were making a parody of retro action films, this “script” would be just right.
It's a similar story with dialogues. Monosyllabic and unambiguous phrases and answers from Citizen Nevsky, speaking with the favorite intonation of a telephone bot, attempts to draw out failures by the character Van Dyne, who honestly, but unsuccessfully tries to revive the dead man with his acting, horrific humor, classic for “Mr. Universe” films, capable of making the legless leave, attempts to give meaning to words where there should not be any, which makes everything sound extremely unnatural.
Production, cinematography and editing. As for close-ups and general plans, calm movements of the characters around the city, and so on, everything is at the level of an ordinary TV series. When it comes to action, it's camera epilepsy, arbitrary angles and the same arbitrary editing. And there is no actual action as such here: standard shooting, waste of fake blood and ammunition. Close-up of Nevsky watering enemies with his lower lip protruding, turning around like a turret on a tank, his first team quickly dies, and the second, “star”, wanders for a long time and gloomily through the jungle, as if looking for a wallet lost in the bushes. And then he also waters the conveyor belt enemies in close-up. In general, the number of close-ups in the film is simply off the charts. True, no more than in the legendary “Black Rose”.
Mark's father helped choreograph the fights in the film - Al Dacascos, but there was actually nothing to put here. Nevsky in a fight looks like a paralyzed bear in a circus (in interviews he often says that he was involved in boxing and martial arts, but apparently he was simply beaten during training), Van Dien mostly gets cradled, Wilson – spent, Gruner it was nice to see, he looks good, holds himself well, but, having shown several movements and painful ones, he was eliminated, although from the “star team of Nevsky” it was he who could have accomplished something sane and realistic. Poison-haired Rothrock She was doing something with her feet, but because of the arthouse angles and editing it was difficult to understand what exactly. Dyuzhev is a completely useless idiot. Hughes still looks good and, as always, runs very gracefully and gracefully. And don’t even expect fights between heroes and bosses.
Well, and Mark Dacascos, who, by the way, although he died very quickly, showed something more or less readable and intelligible in terms of a fighting game. But, alas, short-lived.
And in conclusion, a few facts about Alexander Nevsky in “Showdown in Manila”:
- When Nevsky runs out of cartridges, his enemies also run out of cartridges.
- Nevsky is able to knock out an enemy with one blow, break the enemy's knee with one pressure.
- Nevsky's deadliest move is a slap to the opponent's chest.
- Nevsky cannot be killed.
- Nevsky doesn't miss.
- Nevsky's friends don't miss a beat.
- To find a person whom no one has ever seen, Nevsky only needs to walk around bars with a portrait of this person drawn by hand from memory.
- Nevsky with a stick is not just a “wow so wow” exercise, but also a deadly martial art.
- Nevsky breathes a smoke grenade like clean air deeply.
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Tags: Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Dyuzhev, Don Wilson, Kasper Van Din, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Mark Dacascos, Matthias Hughes, Olivier Gruner, Showdown in Manila, Cynthia Rothrock, Tia Carrere
Tags: Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Dyuzhev, Don Wilson, Kasper Van Din, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Mark Dacascos, Matthias Hughes, Olivier Gruner, Showdown in Manila, Cynthia Rothrock, Tia Carrere
Exler on "Disassembly" wrote a review. You can read and giggle.
Wave,
A little overkill with expressive sarcasm. “Black Rose” is, yes, the standard of shit. And Manila... well, it’s just bad.
Wave,
I hope not a positive one, Alex often writes conflicting reviews)
It seems to me that Nevsky needs to make films, if only because he can then read rave reviews and reviews about them)))
LalY,
Let him take pictures and make us and himself happy. It's much better than... than drinking vodka, for example.
Ravenside,
Judging by the way he looks and moves... he manages to combine quite successfully))) But let him film, of course, I'm all for it))))
LalY,
He can't combine it. Vodka is clearly in the lead.
Ravenside,
"Vodka is inside, but there's a bottle outside!"
Thank you for your response, I’m not sure about the network, I don’t think it’s there yet..
Dmitriy,
I looked online. Look on VKontakte, it should be there. Did you really think that I went to the cinema?
Reviews of this work have the exact opposite effect on me - I want to see it with my own eyes more and more :)
Dmitriy,
The movie is just a stupid mess. You can’t call it 100% shit, the advantages were listed, but I wouldn’t recommend wasting time.
There is nothing eye-catching either - the film cannot be called trash with mega-moments (like the laser grid from Resident Evil)
Dmitriy,
It's already lying around on the net. But don’t expect some of the usual “trash from Nevsky” in advance. "Manila" is just a boring, low budget action movie with bad acting, bad direction and bad plot. The absence of Nevsky would not make it a masterpiece. And the presence added “color”)))) But, one way or another, there is nothing to swagger over, as for example, in “Black Rose”.
Please give me a link to download, I couldn’t find it myself, I want to watch it.
Dave,
Look on VK, it's there somewhere.
Thank you.
Dmitriy,
When there are a lot of negative reviews, some interest arises - yes. For example, this is how I became acquainted with the Japanese thrash genre :)))
An excellent review from the maestro - a good start to the day!
Indeed, the movie was already a corpse from the very beginning; neither the attempts to make a beautiful picture nor the actors could save it. In the comments to other reviews of the film, it was suggested that in fact the director is Nevsky himself - his handwriting is 100%, and Dacascos was written as the director, because Nevsky understands his reputation and decided to get out, hiding behind Mark's back.
There are points in the review. where I don’t quite agree: “spit in your eyes - God’s dew” - Nevsky is very angry at critics, both Bazhenov and Golubochkin, moreover, negative reviews from film searches and other things constantly disappeared at first.
And thank you.
PS. - I read Raven’s review of John Wick, I generally agree with it, if it’s not on the site, it’s worth inserting.
uranium,
Yes, well, he gets angry, he said that too. It’s Golubochkin who is aggravating Nevsky, and his ears are whistling. But Nevsky said about Golubchokin a couple of times, nothing more. It is clear that Nevsky has a pride the size of a continent, but he actually does very little to respond. In addition, Bazhenov gained a lot of publicity at the expense of Nevsky. As well as Nevsky due to him.
Regarding deleted reviews, this is normal. Everything is being removed, not just Nevsky, it’s just a regular Internet mechanism for promoting a film. In addition, during the film weekend, negative reviews from film searches are deleted or delayed in publication for a huge number of films (I already know) So this is not an indicator.
And yes, I also had a version that Nevsky was the director. But at the same time, Dacascos is not John Woo. Besides, there is no money, so the film crew is terrible, where will a good film come from?
Ravenside,
In principle, it is acceptable that Bazhenov and Nevsky have mutual PR; I was taught about this back in school in political science subcourses. I agree with the rest - there were similar deletions with the Salamander Key.
A good film can be made on a low budget - and there have been examples. but now it’s easier for low-income people to make a short film or a C-class regional film “for their own” than to look for a more famous low-cost film.
uranium,
And we have already talked about the budget many times. Yes, the budget is very important, but it is not the main thing. But in the case of Manila, it turned out that everything was important, as they say, the budget and the plot.
And I also noticed that Nevsky, to put it mildly, looks very unwell: unhealthy complexion, bags under his eyes, heavy gait. Contrary to his statements, he clearly does not lead a healthy lifestyle.
Good review. Thank you. Easy to read.